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INDUSTRY NEWS

A face in the crowd: A year after most extensive face transplant in historyNBC NewsFor 15 years, Richard Lee Norris hid his gun-shot-shattered face from the public, wearing a mask when he left the house and shopping late at night to avoid the curious stares of children and adults. For all intents and purposes, the once sociable Norris had become a recluse.
Then, in 2012, Norris received the face transplant that would forever change his life and break new ground for researchers hoping to heal soldiers disfigured by wounds from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Transplant surgery has come a long way in a short timeBy Rosemary Sparacio Like the strides being made in other areas of medicine, those occurring in transplant surgery certainly rank among some of the most advanced. From the first successful organ transplant — kidney in 1954 — to the most recent double-lung transplant in a 10-year-old Pennsylvania girl, one can see how far this branch of surgery has come in a relatively short time frame. In the last several years, two cutting-edge trials related to transplant surgery occurred, both involving the use of stem cells.

Australia: Organ donors get paid leave for first timeThe Australian Associated Press via Yahoo NewsPeople who become live organ donors will for the first time be able to access paid leave from work.
A two-year federal government-funded pilot program will soon begin, providing up to six weeks' paid leave at the minimum wage rate, or up to $3,600.

First opt-out organ donation scheme in UK set to be approved in WalesThe GuardianThe first organ donation scheme in the U.K. that puts the onus on citizens to opt out if they do not wish to take part was set to be given the go-ahead on Tuesday, July 2.
Welsh assembly members voted on a controversial bill under which adults will be deemed to have consented to their organs and tissue being used if they have not stipulated otherwise.
The Welsh government believes the law will increase the number of organs available, save dozens of lives every year and, if successful, could be copied in other parts of the U.K.

Scottish doctors appeal for organ donors with new film campaignDaily RecordDoctors are urging people to register as organ donors with a new film campaign.
The British Medical Association Scotland drive is part of a wider plan to move to an "opt-out" system where people are presumed to be donors. The change would mean people would have to register an objection or make their family aware of their opposition to avoid donating.

US House Resolution calls for ending organ pillaging in ChinaEpoch TimesCongresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., and Rep. Robert Andrews, D-N.J., recently introduced House Resolution 281 in the House Committee on Foreign Affairs that calls on China to immediately stop the practice of organ harvesting from its prisoners, particularly from Falun Gong prisoners of conscience and "members of other religious and ethnic minority groups."

NKTI consultant: Kidney transplant using organ from a kidnap victim, a medical impossibilityPhilippine Information Agency It is medically impossible to perform a successful kidney transplant operation using an organ harvested from a kidnap victim.
This was the statement made by National Kidney Transplant Institute Urologist consultant Dr. Jose Benito Abraham in a press conference to mark the National Kidney Month in Bohol.
Dr. Abraham said kidneys harvested in such a manner "never end up in a transplant process."
The statement was made in response to speculation that missing children may have been victims of a so-called "kidney for sale" scheme.

MIT nanotech research targets bone-repair surgeryThe Boston GlobeStephen Morton knows firsthand the trouble a failed bone implant can cause: His father had a hip implant that had to be replaced within two years.
"Both times, he was bedridden for about six months," Morton said. "Now he walks with a kind of persistent limp. Because of the failure of the initial implant, it led to a decrease in the quality of life."
Today, as a doctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Morton is part of a research team that may have found a way to make bone implants less likely to fail — a high-tech adhesive that more securely bonds implants to bone by promoting cell growth between natural and artificial body parts.